Articles fabricated from high barrier multilayer plastic structures have recently gained wide acceptance in the market. Films of multilayer structure are well-suited for containing foods while rigid or semi-rigid containers fabricated by blow molding have recently gained wide public acceptance as containers for many types of food products. Particularly, multilayer plastic containers, like bottles, food trays and the like, are a laminate of many individual plastic layers, including as one layer of the structure a gas barrier polymer. Such trays, bottles and bags made from film have gained a significant acceptance in the market place for storing food products such as condiments, sauces, syrups and a wide variety of other food products which require refrigeration. The use of such laminated multilayer barrier packages to package cold use food items has been somewhat restricted, however, particularly in the area of rigid and semi-rigid bottles by reason of the fact that many multilayer plastic containers including a barrier layer show significant numbers of failures upon accidental impact with a surface such as by dropping the container inadvertently onto the floor when the container is cold. This results in an unacceptable level of breakage upon use or shipment and has significantly restricted the utility of multilayer barrier packages for certain end uses.
For the above reason, there is a need in the art for an improved laminated multilayer high barrier plastic package structure, particularly a freestanding bottle, having an improved low temperature drop impact strength when used with food items which require refrigeration.